Arthur answered only by a look. But it was a look that told her all that she wanted to know. When the guests were gone, Dorothy prepared for a hasty retreat to her room, but Arthur called to her as she reached the landing of the stairs, and asked: “Shall we have one of our old time horseback rides ‘soon’ in the morning, Dorothy?” “Yes. It delights me to hear our Virginia phrase ‘soon in the morning.’ Thank you, I’ll be ready. Good night.” XXXVIII SOON IN THE MORNING _I_t was Dick who brought the horses on that next morning--Dick grown into a tall and comely fellow, and no longer dressed in the careless fashion of a year ago. For had not Dick spent two months in Richmond as his master’s body servant? And had he not there developed his native dandy instincts? And had not the sight of the well-nigh universal uniforms of that time bred in him a great longing to wear some sort of “soldier clothes”? His master had indulged the fancy. He meant to keep Dick as his body servant throughout the coming war, and, at any rate while he sat as a member of that august body the constitutional convention, he wanted his “boy” to present the appearance of a gentleman’s servitor. So, when he took Dick to a tailor to be dressed in suitable fashion, he readily acquiesced in the young negro’s preference for a suit of velveteen and corduroys with brass buttons shining all over it like the stars in Ursa Major. The tailor, recognizing the shapeliness of the young negro’s person as something that afforded him an opportunity to display his skill in the matter of “fit” had brought all his art to bear upon the task of perfecting Dick’s livery. Dick in his turn had employed strategy in securing an opportunity to show himself in his new glory to his “Mis’ Dorothy.” Ben, the hostler who usually brought the horses had recently “got religion”--a bilious process which at that time was apt to render a negro specially indifferent to the obligations of morality with respect to “chickens fryin’ size,” and gloomily unfit for the performance of his ordinary duties. Dick had labored over night with “Bro’ Ben,” persuading him that he was really ill, and inducing him to swallow two blue mass pills--the which Dick had adroitly filched from the medicine chest in the laboratory. And as Dick, since his service “endurin’ of de feveh,” had enjoyed the reputation of knowing “‘mos as much as a sho’ ’nuff doctah,” Ben readily acquiesced in Dick’s suggestion that he, Ben, should lie abed in the morning, Dick kindly volunteering to feed and curry his mules for him and “bring de hosses.” Dick’s strategy accomplished its purpose, and so it was Dick, resplendent in a livery that might have done credit to a field marshal on dress parade, who presented himself at the gate that morning in charge of his master’s and Dorothy’s mounts. Arthur looked at him and asked: “Why are you in full-dress uniform today, General Dick?”